All in Daily Devotion
We often pray for forgiveness, and in one such prayer we ask God to forgive us from those things we have left undone. Have you ever prayed this way and wondered what those undone sins might be? Well the most powerful example of these is not witnessing in word or deed to a sinner, either unsaved, or who has wandered from the faith. Not witnessing when we are able places the blood of that soul upon us, but by obedience we save our own souls.
Is your life the manifestation of God’s glory? Are you more than mere flesh and blood, such that you not only say and do good things, but are also living and breathing praise to Him? We hear the expression “People should see Christ in you.”, but do they, and to what end is this most important? I ask again... are you the embodiment of praise such that others who see you experience God’s glory?
Every country has a beginning. Some were established so long ago that the exact dates have been lost, and they just seem to have always been, but the United States is young enough that it still remembers its birthday... July 4th, 1776. So happy Birthday USA! Religion is no different than countries, or peoples, in that regard, and the Christian faith is the same. We argue about the exact date of Christ’s birth, because the precise day has been lost to conjecture, and antiquity. Is it December?... September?... the discussion continues. What is important though is our own beginning and personal history with Jesus Christ.
If I were to ask you what your most persistent sin was, what would you tell me? If I were to question you as to what stands most often between you and answered prayer, what would you say to me? Would you respond covetousness? Maybe! How about lying? No? Perhaps lust? Not this? True, you might do any of these things, and more, from time to time, but I dare say that none of these are your most flagrant and unresolved sin, that would be loving your neighbor enough to forgive them.
Yesterday I listened as one of my Pastors delivered a sermon on the subject of interruptions, and during it he talked about a section of scripture comprised of a story within a story... one story that interrupted another. As he continued to preach, my mind left on a different route, and the complexity of God’s word dominated my thoughts.
One of the most frequent responses I receive from readers of my morning devotionals is a request for prayer. More often than not it is to join them in a specific prayer that they have been praying for some time without receiving an answer. Do you have prayers like this? Well if so, don’t be discouraged because the disciples failed in prayer too, and Jesus taught them a powerful lesson in it.
Are you really the free person who Christ redeemed? Did Jesus pay your ransom only to find that you could not separate yourself from the sin from which he had saved you? Or, perhaps you are like the Galatians who found themselves tempted to leave the freedom Jesus had secured for them in order to chain themselves to the Law of an old faithfulness. My word for you this morning is to claim and accept the freedom whose cost was so dearly paid for you.
This morning I contemplate the body of Christ as taken at Communion. This gift that is more than a passing thought, but something which becomes part and parcel of us mentally, spiritually, and yes, physically. When at the Lord’s Table, do you realize how perfect the remembrance of Christ should be to you? This is an act in which our being is joined perfectly with His through His blessing, and by His hand.
Faith, do you desire it, do you seek it, do you accept it? Can you recognize faith when you see it in others? At its inception faith is ethereal in nature and we can’t hold it in our hand, but when we have a touch of it within ourselves we suddenly begin to see evidence of it all around us. When we have accepted faith it can suddenly be measured. So I ask... do you hold a mustard seed in your hand?
How do you smell today? Are you fragrant like a flower, sweet like honey, have the smell of sweat and toil, or are you rancid like death? The Bible speaks about smell in many ways, but none more powerful than when it speaks of the fragrance of life, and death on us. When we think of scent we most often think of the smells that surround us, but we are one of those odors... how do you smell spiritually today?
Do we look to Jesus to heal us? Do we depend upon Him to come to us in our times of illness and to lay His healing hand upon our head? Do we wait for Him to say rise and walk, or return our eyesight, or restore our hearing with a bold touch? Well sometimes the healing comes when we go to Him. He is more than a healer... He is the healing itself, and all that needs to happen is for us to come into contact with Him.
How do we come to understand the Word of God, and His will for us? Is it by our own intellect, and through diligent study that we are able to piece it together like a puzzle? Do we somehow find the hidden key within it that allows everything to fall into place so that we can stand back from it and marvel at our ingenuity? No, we understand with our hearts, and not our minds. Our minds barely scratch the surface, but our hearts use them like a scalpel.
Do you feel like you aren’t working hard enough at becoming holy? Do you believe that by your efforts you can become sanctified? Well as much as we might like to think this is possible, it is not. If we depend solely on our own efforts to win holiness then we are certainly lost. So let’s look at how sanctification is possible. How am I ever to become Holy?
Do you bless your family? Are you more than a sire, or a dame who brought forth children from the womb? There is so much to raising a family, and all of our children are as different as Jacob’s; each needing a special blessing. Not all of them are presently good, but each one needs to know the Lord, and that necessitates our prayers, our attention, and our blessing as we wait upon God to call and save them. This is our calling, the will of a God for us, but in the end we can’t save them ourselves.
Do we forgive others so that God can forgive us? Do we believe in God so that we open the way for his belief in us? Do we trust in God’s Word which allows Him to trust ours? So often we say “God did not answer my prayer”, but I ask you... did you believe, forgive, answer “yes” to His will, that He might respond in kind to you?